By DANIEL GINSBERG

Maturity has been kind to onetime violin prodigy Midori. Still in control of the dazzling technique that made her a presence on concert stages in her early teens, the 34-year-old artist has gained an interpretive depth to match that virtuosity. Midori now is more musician than youthful spectacle, a well-rounded artist capable of saying something about music's underlying emotion.

Last night at the Kennedy Center, this superstar soloist gave a commanding performance with the National Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Leonard Slatkin. There was much to admire in Midori's approach to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 [...]

Tchaikovsky wrote his 1878 concerto in Switzerland while recovering from a nervous breakdown, and Midori played the work with sobriety and lyricism that suggested sunny openness and gratitude for a recovery. The soloist released golden spindles of sound in the initial movement, bringing an ethereal tone in the upper registers and a burnished richness to the deeper reaches.

The second movement, Adagio, was highly expressive, naturally unfolding from its initial weeping themes... Midori floated the quietest and purest of phrases to the upper reaches of the Concert Hall. The finale was a blaze of energy, laced with compact curlicue figures and zesty rhythms.